


Storms

by supershadsy



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: M/M, Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 21:10:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5758972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supershadsy/pseuds/supershadsy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>This wasn't supposed to be our final battle,</i> Mikleo thought. <i>I was supposed to stay with you until the very end.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Storms

**Author's Note:**

> I thought of this story at 1 AM last night, and much to my dismay, it could not leave me alone. Now, everyone suffers. Enjoy!

In the thick miasma of malevolence, Sorey’s brave troupe of seraphim (and one human), stood, weapons ready, surrounded by Symonne. Everywhere they looked, there was another copy of her thin, pale form, grinning at them in that infuriating, saccharine way. “Damn it, which one of them is her?” Zaveid shouted, his pendulums twirling around him. “We can’t help Sorey like this--”

“Had it ever occurred to you,” Symonne said, her voice echoing around them, taunting, leering. “That maybe...just _maybe..._ that was the point?”

“Don’t listen to her!” Rose shouted, already slashing into shadow clones. The moment her blades hit one, it vanished, only for another to appear in its place. “Just keep pushing through until you see him and Heldalf!”

“This malevolence is so thick,” Lailah lamented, back to back against Rose. “If we concentrate, maybe we can get through to Sorey…”

“I doubt it~,” Symonne taunted.

“We _can_ get through!” Mikleo’s staff was twirling in the sea of shadows, eyes narrowed and determined. _“Sorey!_ Hold on!”

* * *

Sorey couldn’t hear them.

Beyond the wall of Symonne’s clone army, he stood alone against the daunting figure of Heldalf, the Lord of Calamity himself. He was covered in a layer of thick, purple malevolence, swirling around him, the sheer weight of it made Sorey feel sick. He brandished his sword in front of him, desperately trying to hold it steady, even knowing that his measly ornamental sword stood no match against the thick steel of Heldalf’s. _Everyone…_

_P-please watch over me…_

“You are weak,” Heldalf sneered, taking one step toward him, the simple act seeming to shake the ground. “Your seraphim have abandoned you. Even your squire.”

“No,” Sorey replied through clenched teeth, shaking his head. “They haven’t...they’re still here--”

“How could you know?” Heldalf’s yellow eyes pierced through him, meeting his own emerald green, and Sorey desperately tried not to choke on his own tongue. _My whole body hurts, it feels like I can’t breathe...this powerful malevolence--_

“Th-they’re here,” he repeated, twisting the grip on his sword. “I believe in them, they’re _still he--”_

He was cut off by Heldalf rudely lifting him with one hand by his neck, his enormous hand nearly able to wrap his fingers around its entire circumference. “Your insolence is both amusing...and _infuriating,”_ he hissed, squeezing around Sorey’s neck. “I will give you one...last...chance.”

Sorey struggled and flailed in Heldalf’s grip

_(kill him)_

as both the force and the malevolence continued to stifle him. _No, I can’t, not yet,_ Sorey thought, eyes squeezed shut. _I need_

_(they’ve abandoned you just kill him)_

_I need my friends here first. I won’t do it without them--I_ can’t _\--_

_(kill him KILL HIM kill him)_

“N-nngh…” he grunted, and one eye squinted open to see a grin on Heldalf’s face. “I...I…”

“Do you feel that?” he said, breath hot and pungent against his face. “Embrace the malevolence. Let it give you strength.”

“N-no...I...won’t…” Much to his own surprise, he felt his arms moving upward against his will, sword raising above his head. _What? What’s going on--?!_

“You want to, don’t you?” Heldalf chuckled. “Let your _true_ feelings guide you.”

_These aren’t my true feelings!_ Sorey screamed inside his head, forcing every ounce of his strength in forcing his hands back down. The blade of his sword hovered against his nose, ready to plunge deep into Heldalf’s chest. It felt as if a hundred weights were on his arms, begging him to slash down, drive the blade forward--but he struggled to break free, change the angle, drop the sword, _anything--_

_(it’s right there he wants you to)_

_I can’t! We don’t know everything yet, that’s what Lailah says--_

_(who cares about her? won’t it feel GOOD)_

_No_

_(to DESTROY the being that’s caused so much destruction)_

_I-it...it’s not the same_

_(not the same as what? kill him KILL HIM KILL HIM)_

“NnnNNGAH!” Sorey shouted, his visioning beginning to darken at the corners. _“I won’t! Let me GO!”_

In a wave of light, the malevolence pulsed away from him, and the pressure against his sword hand lifted instantaneously. Instead of forcing it forwards into Heldalf’s chest, Sorey forced it backwards, but in his strength to be free, its direction was miscalculated,

and instead ripped through himself.

The blade plunged straight through his heart, reaching the other side of his back with ease. He felt the warmth of blood dribbling from both his chest and his back, and a trickle from his mouth. _Shoot._ Heldalf’s eyes widened as his grip loosened around his neck, chuckling. _N-no, I didn’t...was this what he wanted? Was it all a trap?_ He opened his mouth to speak but as his vision spotted more heavily, no words came out, not even to protest against the incredible pain pulsating through his core, hot and mighty. _I’m not_

_I’m not ready yet…_

Heldalf let him fall to the ground with a meaty thud. “Symonne,” he commanded.

The dark seraph, who was entertaining herself conducting her clones against the others, dropped her whip upon seeing Sorey’s limp, bleeding body in a heap on the ground. “Oh, my,” she said, and instantly, the crowd of shadows vanished, revealing Rose and the other seraphim.

Lailah was the first to see the blood, the sword jutting out of his chest. “O-oh…” she whimpered, tears at the corners of her eyes. Shaking, she fell to her knees, hands over her mouth. “O-oh...no, Sorey...no…”

“Sorey!” Rose shouted, lunging forward to try and rush to his side, but was stopped by a crowd of Symonne shadows, grinning and giggling. “Ugh, get _out of my way!”_

“So easily tricked~,” she cooed, waving her whip like a conductor’s baton.

Edna had turned away from the group, umbrella hiding her face. “He’s dead, isn’t he?” she muttered, her usual deadpan voice carrying an odd, watery quality.

_“SOREY!”_

Mikleo, on the other hand, was not to be deterred, bolting to Sorey’s side. Symonne attempted to create several more shadows to stop him, but he plowed through them, stumbling to his knees at his friend’s body. His heart raced, hands shook as more blood seeped onto the ground, staining the knees of his pants dark red. The sword still lay deep in Sorey’s chest, and when Mikleo reached for the blade, a wave of nausea coursed through him, bile rising in his throat. “A-aah…” he whimpered, then raised his staff high above his head. _“Healing Circle!”_

Upon slamming it down to the ground, a circle of white light flooded around them, nearly blinding back the fog of malevolence. Still, Heldalf, less than two feet away from them, chuckled to himself, crossing his arms. “If a simple healing spell can bring him back, then you really are a miracle worker,” he taunted. “Face it, seraph. Your Shepard is dead.”

“No…” he whispered. “I won’t...I won’t…”

As the spell faded, Sorey opened one eye, so slight that Mikleo could barely tell it was open. “S-Ss…” he stammered, leaning over him. Sorey weakly lifted a hand up toward him, smiling, still smiling as his face grew more and more pale as blood leeched from his body. Mikleo took it, holding it up against his face. “No...no…”

Tears poured down Mikleo’s face, Sorey’s hand ice cold as his head lolled to the side. “S-Sorey…” he whispered again, choking on his name. _This wasn’t supposed to happen,_ Mikleo thought. _This wasn’t supposed to be the final battle._

_I was supposed to stay with you until the very end._

_Sorey…_

As he lowered his hand down, looking upon Sorey’s cold, lifeless body, a white heat began prickling through him. “What will you do?” Heldalf said.

Mikleo grit his teeth. _I’ll kill you._ He groped for his staff, holding it tight in his hand, and rose to his feet, knees still dripping with Sorey’s blood. “I’ll…”

“Mikleo!” Zaveid shouted from the sidelines. Everyone had grouped back together; Rose had Lailah in her arms, shielding her away from Sorey’s body. “Come on, bud, let’s get out of here--”

Mikleo whipped his head back to him, violet eyes wide and angry enough to set the ground on fire. “I can’t,” he growled, and quickly whipped back around to Heldalf.

“Do you think you can face me on your own?” he taunted, raising an open palm in front of him. Within moments, an orb of dark light grew upon it.

“I’ll kill you,” Mikleo growled, staff outward as he stalked toward him. “I’ll kill you...I’ll kill you…”

“Your anger is enticing,” Heldalf mused.

Mikleo stepped over Sorey’s body, and the brief glance down at it fueled him even more. “I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!” He shot a blast of water down at his feet, which Heldalf dodged easily.

_“Mikleo!”_ Rose came running from the back, not even stopped by Symonne, and grabbed his shoulder. “Don’t do this, please! W-we’ll take Sorey and regroup--”

_“Let go of me!”_ Mikleo elbowed her in the stomach, staggering her backwards, but was ultimately stopped when she ran in front of him, her knives out.

_“Listen!”_ she shouted, panting as she stared him down. “I’m angry and upset too, but if you fight him like this, you’re going to die, too!” She began to cough, concentrated malevolence curling around her feet. “B-besides--”

Mikleo glared at her down the shaft of his staff, eyes glowing. “Get out of my _way,”_ he said, and let off another blast of water, rocketing her against a boulder to the side. He did not watch her as she rubbed her head, blood coming off the back of it from the impact.

“This is quite interesting,” Heldalf mused, as the orb of dark light grew in his hand. “Malevolence becomes you, water seraph.”

_“Damn you!”_ Mikleo cried, all at once flinging himself at Heldalf, swinging blows with his staff at him as hard as he could muster. _“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”_ He wailed through his tears, making parts of his white hair stick to his face, while the Lord of Calamity smirked at him in spite. _You killed him! And I’ll kill YOU_

_I loved him, and you took him away from me…_

_I’ll show you…_

_I’LL SHOW YOU...._

“Good, good,” he murmured, as Mikleo was becoming swallowed by the dark light, radiating through and around him. “Why don’t you have a little _more--”_

Heldalf thrust his fist almost through Mikleo, shoving the dark orb into him along with it. Surprisingly, Mikleo didn’t flinch, only strengthening his resolve as he hit Heldalf over, and over, and over again. _“I’LL KILL YOU! YOU STOLE HIM FROM ME, AND I’LL...I’ll...nnNNAAAHH!”_

He landed one final blow, right across his shoulder, and his staff shattered, splintering in pieces in the air. Mikleo fell to his knees, holding his head and sobbing into his hands. “Why...why... _WHY!”_ he wailed, panting. Black light swirled around him as he shook.

“Have you had enough?” Heldalf murmured above him.

Mikleo felt the tip of his sword against his head. “No,” he said. “I’ll... _I’ll DESTROY YOU!”_

His last words came out like a roar, and his body exploded with black, violet light.

Rose scrambled away from the blast radius, back to the other seraphim, furiously rubbing her eyes as Lailah welcomed her into her arms. “Th-this is terrible,” she stammered, sheathing her knives behind her back. “S-Sorey’s _dead,_ a-and now Mikleo won’t listen--”

“I think something much worse has happened to him,” Edna said quietly. She had finally decided to face the group, and tipped her umbrella forward. “Look.”

The group turned around. Mikleo was no more, but in his place stood a spectacular, blue scaled dragon, slender but tall and massive in size. Its scales were deep but iridescent, wings rippling in the sudden wind that rose in the malevolent air. Heldalf stood before it, cackling in its wake. “What a fine dragon you make!” he mocked.

The dragon roared to the sky, and clouds swirled above it, as if answering its cry. “Go! Go forth!” he commanded, arms spread out. “Corrupt this earth, bring it to its mooOOST--”

In one, sudden swoop, without flourish, the dragon reached down and grabbed Heldalf in its mouth, crushing it in its enormous jaw, four times the size of Heldalf’s body. Grotesque crunching noises were all that could be heard, and Rose watched in horror as bones and flesh spilled from the dragon’s mouth. Lailah whimpered at her side. “M-Mikleo--!”

“That’s not Mikleo anymore,” Zaveid said, taking Dezel’s hat off his head and holding it against his bare chest. “Not after what we just saw…”

The dragon roared once again into the air, breathing a blue fire into the sky. As the flames punctured the air, thunder ripped through the clouds, bringing sudden, torrential rainfall down upon the party. The dragon walked a few steps, dwarfing Sorey’s body below it, and it nudged him with its snout. “Are you sure?” Rose asked.

With a sound that could only be interpreted as a whine, the dragon lifted itself into the sky with its gargantuan wingspan, taking Sorey gently into its claws along with it. It flew high into the air, giving another roar as it soared off at incredible speed, taking the atmosphere of malevolence with it, but leaving the rain behind.

“What…” Rose muttered, staring at where Sorey once stood. “Wh-what happens...now?”

“Another Lord of Calamity will surely rise,” Lailah said, her hands clasped and shaking. “Even with Heldalf dead, the malevolence he carried still remains in the earth…”

“And now we’ve got another dragon on the loose,” Zaveid added, putting his hat back on. “Should’ve known those two couldn’t be separated.”

He walked off first, alone. Lailah glanced back and forth between the remains and his back. “Symonne is gone as well,” she said. “She must have fled…”

She put a hand on Rose’s shoulder. “We shouldn’t stay here,” Lailah said. “The dragon may come back.”

“Yeah,” Rose replied, swallowing thick. “I’ll...be right there.”

Lailah nodded with a thin smile, then turned and followed Zaveid, leaving only Edna and Rose at the scene of the battle, drenched in the rain. Thunder sounded once again above them. “So,” Edna said, interrupted by a hitch in her chest. “This is how the world ends.”


End file.
